Tried to buy a 4 foot T8 one yesterday to replace a flickering one in the kitchen. Local Toolstation showed two in store so off I went to buy one, plus a couple of other items.
On arrival, sales person said 'none in stock, they don't make them anymore. Use an LED replacement'.
So what would be a replacement for a 1200 warm-light T? (it's the fatter one that seemed to have been replaced by T8 a few years ago) that gives a similar colour temp ?.
Andrew
You have a T12 at a guess.
Just go LED, bypass the ballast and starter.
Or shop elsewhere.
Assuming that you have a normal magnetic ballast and starter arrangement, an LED T8 tube (available at Toolstation) is a straight replacement for a fluorescent tube.
If you have an electronic ballast, you need a bit of re-wiring of the fitting to use such a tube.
For neatness though, replacing the whole fitting with a single piece, LED batten, with no separate tube is good.
Seems Wickes still have a couple of 4ft fluorescent tubes:
Toolstation do stock them. So do Screwfix. So do others. As far as I know, they will be available for domestic puposes for the next two years at least.
They sell them, but only in 6400K or 4000K. Andrew asked for warm white.
IMHO that is 3000K or 2700K.
Maybe. But for a single fitting most people would not notice if a LED tube was fitted.
That might not be as straight forward as it sounds though. I replaced two flourescent tubes in the garage with LED battens. The fluorescents were wired from the centre, underneath, or on top looking from below, while the leds are wired from the end. That left me with a nasty cable joint in the ceiling which I later masked by installing cheap indoor PIRs in the circuit, where the cables emerged. The burglar alarm maintainer was most impressed. Image at
Nice one.
Mine too are fed from the end, but the terminals are around the middle with a removable cover to access the terminals, so they could just as easily be fed from the middle by drilling a hole through the cover.
As it happens the old battens were fed from the ends, so I had no problems at all.
Yes a friend told me he eventually found some in a back street shop somewhere, they were branded Sylvania or similar. I guess its just not cost effective to make them in bulk any more. Brian
Then you need to repaint the ceiling as they never are quite the same shape. Brian
Ah, but if you choose the "twin" type, they are usually wider than the old ones and cover the marks.
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